The relationship between personality preference groupings and emotional intelligence

Abstract

An exploratory study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between personality preference groupings, as described by Jung’s (1959) type theory, and emotional intelligence, as measured by Bar-On’s emotional intelligence quotient (Bar-On, 1997). The sample group consisted of 1 121 recruitment candidates for a South African investment bank. The sixteen personality types, as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, were represented in the sample. The statistical analysis conducted for this study included comparison of means, correlation analysis and analysis of variance. The results indicated statistically significant relationships between the preferences of Extroversion, Judgement, their combined preference grouping and emotional intelligence. No statistically significant relationships were found between the preference groupings of Intuition and Thinking, Sensing and Thinking, Intuition and Feeling, and Sensing and Feeling. The preferred Feeling preference type consistently scored the lowest in terms of emotional intelligence scores.